Ascension marks the first Jesu album since 2007's Conqueror. Don't let the four year gap fool you, they have been busy beavers. Over the last four years Jesu has put out five EP's, a split with Battle Of Mice, and Infinity, a release with one song that lasts nearly 50 minutes. The period has seen highs (Opiate Sun), mehs (Lifeline) and lows... last year's Dethroned, which ended with the aptly named "I Can Only Disappoint You."

I don't think of them as metal anymore because it isn't the most prominent factor at all. They lost the drone/noise vibe of their self-titled release and leaned towards a more shoegaze/Post-rock oriented sound with even a hint of Dream Pop thrown in there (on a couple of songs). But contrary to you I'm enjoying this album quite a bit, the fuzzy atmosphere and soothing vocals really do their job of numbing the listener into a trance, add to that the occasional heavy doom metal riff and you get a solid record. But I still need a couple more listens to properly make up my mind.

Implying you're totally unaware of the pejorative description of the modern trends popular music scenes that conform to specific subsets of style, sound and image?

Holy patronising smartass.. yes it's obviously a huge trend in terms of clothing and lifestyle, but to use that word to describe the music makes no sense. What's commonly referred to as 'indie' is a mish-mash of pop rock, synthpop, new wave, post-punk, shoegaze, american folk, disco, psychedelia, pop jazz, and a bunch of other styles. That and the word 'indie' actually being an abbreviation for 'independent' as in 'belonging to an independent record label', which has even less to do with the music itself.

Jesu is shoegaze metal, don't you think? Or are you going to insist that they actually conform to this 'indie' sub-culture?

Holy patronising smartass.. yes it's obviously a huge trend in terms of clothing and lifestyle, but to use that word to describe the music makes no sense. What's commonly referred to as 'indie' is a mish-mash of pop rock, synthpop, new wave, post-punk, shoegaze, american folk, disco, psychedelia, pop jazz, and a bunch of other styles. That and the word 'indie' actually being an abbreviation for 'independent' as in 'belonging to an independent record label', which has even less to do with the music itself.

Jesu is shoegaze metal, don't you think? Or are you going to insist that they actually conform to this 'indie' sub-culture?

"indie" is a buzzword commonly used by people to describe a number of bands adopting the likes of post-rock, noise-rock, shoegaze and of course the popular indie-rock bands. Essentially fodder for the likes of NME, Pitchfork and such. Jesu reek of such influence.

I'm well aware of indie's technical meanings but it has taken on more modern, cultural, variants since then.

Holy patronising smartass.. yes it's obviously a huge trend in terms of clothing and lifestyle, but to use that word to describe the music makes no sense. What's commonly referred to as 'indie' is a mish-mash of pop rock, synthpop, new wave, post-punk, shoegaze, american folk, disco, psychedelia, pop jazz, and a bunch of other styles. That and the word 'indie' actually being an abbreviation for 'independent' as in 'belonging to an independent record label', which has even less to do with the music itself.

Jesu is shoegaze metal, don't you think? Or are you going to insist that they actually conform to this 'indie' sub-culture?

"indie" is a buzzword commonly used by people to describe a number of bands adopting the likes of post-rock, noise-rock, shoegaze and of course the popular indie-rock bands. Essentially fodder for the likes of NME, Pitchfork and such. Jesu reek of such influence.

I'm well aware of indie's technical meanings but it has taken on more modern, cultural, variants since then.

I don't think of them as metal anymore because it isn't the most prominent factor at all. They lost the drone/noise vibe of their self-titled release and leaned towards a more shoegaze/Post-rock oriented sound with even a hint of Dream Pop thrown in there (on a couple of songs). But contrary to you I'm enjoying this album quite a bit, the fuzzy atmosphere and soothing vocals really do their job of numbing the listener into a trance, add to that the occasional heavy doom metal riff and you get a solid record. But I still need a couple more listens to properly make up my mind.

I feel the same! It was easy-listening I suppose, a bit different from their old works. The album had an emotional feel to it, but it brought a sense of sadness/depression. In a way I do prefer their previous albums, and the only song I really enjoyed was Kings of Kings.. the rest were a bit.. eh..